Smile Launches to $2 Million in Box Office Preview Night

Smile is looking good at the box office with $2 million in Thursday previews at the box office. The Paramount movie is off to a strong start in the United States. It's got quite a lead over Bros, which tallied about $500,000 in theaters. Spooky Season is here and with it brings a number of horror projects to both the silver screen and streaming services. Smile has banked on a really creepy teaser trailer and some viral stunts. At sporting events all over the U.S., Paramount sent out paid actors to stand and smile wickedly as people captured the unnerving vibes on social media. This worked out swimmingly as even certain telecasts made note of it while it was happening. (To be fair, how could you not?) Projections have the horror movie claiming the top spot from last weekend's winner Don't Worry Darling. Smile could earn up to $20 million at the box office which would be huge for a movie that only cost $17 million to make. As Halloween draws closer, you could expect that gross to increase. However, there will be more entrants to the horror movie arena as October begins in earnest.

Comicbook.com's Patrick Cavanaugh reviewed the movie for our site. In his review, he praised the scares. While the narrative might not have been the most gripping, the themes and timely subject matter make this a definite trip to the theater for a horror movie fan.

"In the world of horror, there are two times of year that are often considered dumping grounds for movies that studios don't have much faith in. The first is in the early months of the year, as January and February has most audiences focusing on the films nominated for awards from the previous year instead of critiquing the merits of genre stories. The other dumping ground is heading into the Halloween season, because even if a movie isn't great, studios know that audiences will be hungry for any horror," Cavanaugh wrote. "The marketing campaign for Smile might lead many to believe it was a relatively generic horror film just hoping to cash in on seasonal excitement, especially since it's not a recognizable franchise and doesn't rely on famous stars. The actual film, however, is a pleasant surprise, full of hugely effective scares, which mostly mask the razor-thin plot and almost manage to say some powerful things about mental health, depression, and trauma."

Here's a description for Smile: "After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can't explain. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality."

Are you ready for a scare? Let us know down in the comments!